My darling 17 year old cat has peacefully died in her sleep but....

I don't know what to do with her....It's Bank Holiday. Are you allowed to bury cats in your garden? I guess I'll call the vets tomorrow and ask?At the moment she is in a box in the garage....What can I expect? So sad and this is just painful to think about.Thanks in advance for any advice/ experience.I haven't got it in me to google......I'm hoping MN will be more sympathetic!

You can bury her if that's what you want. Are you likely to move very soon though? If you have friends with a farm or very big garden I would ask if you can use a corner somewhere. Very sorry that you've lost her but 17 is a great age for a cat. She was obviously much loved.

Thank you so much everyone.We would like to bury her and I think this is what we will do after reading this. I had it in my mind that you were not allowed to for some reason. We will buy a lovely tree to mark the spot. Thanks again all xx

my 15yo cat had to be pts at the vets last night. I asked if the burial could wait until this morning but the vet said it should be done within a few hours or to put her in the freezer. :-( so dp buried her at midnight.

Thank you dolphins and cozie.Dolphins I saw your thread- so sorry. It's very hard when they are such a part of the family.DH has taken to his bed...says he's not feeling well but I'm sure he's in his man cave bless him. Not sure i can steel myself to do it alone. It will have to be early morning. She's all wrapped up and it's very cold here now so I hope it will be ok in the cold garage.

Thank you badkitten. Maybe you can tell me what the weather will be like at 6am in SE London tomorrow!!I keep thinking I can see her out of the corner of my eye. Went to give her some boiled ham I'd made as well.....how the hell do people cope if they lose a child?

Thank you. I've managed to give myself a super headache from blubbing! The teenage DDs have gone hyper emotional- planning collages, posting tributes all over instasnapbook or whatever it is......funny how they deal with it bless them.What did everyone else's children do about the loss of their cat?

Your plan for buying a nice tree sounds lovely, hope tomorrow goes as well as could be expected

My 18 year old cat died last year but my children are much much younger than yours, they did not really pay masses of attention to what was going on at the time but they still talk about the cat and say that they miss her (which even 6 months on, still brings a tear to my eye)

Wow! 18 timtam! That's a good age. So lovely that your children talk about the cat....it just shows what an integral part of the family they are.My girls seem fine this morning now they have emoted all over the place!

So DH woke up and I was ready to hand him the shovel. He claimed he is ill and unable to dig a hole for her. My back wont allow me to do it. So I've now just got back from dropping my girl off at the vets to be cremated. Not what I'd planned but there you go. She's going to be cremated individually and I'll put the tree on top of her ashes. The vet lady was lovely- coping with my choking and hiccuping my way through the details. She even got the cat out of the car for me bless her.Awful. Oh well. Hopefully I'll stop blubbing now that's done! Thanks everyone. It's really helped talking on here.

It is awful. Be prepared that its difficult when you pick up their ashes. Brings it back. I'd wrapped mine in a towel and they hadn't washed it when they returned it which I got upset about (but I might have been upset had they washed it too!)

It took me about a week before I stopped weeping at random times, but I get teary if I think about it too much.